Bloody Darkness
by Komikron
Summary: Dreams and wishes... Life and death... Body and soul... we'll see, what exists at the end... (Stupid summary as every time... ^^; )
1. Prologue ::: Wishes

So, here's a new short story... It's not as long as the last and has no really plot. ^^; It's very Hartia-focused and, as I said, some kind of nonsense. I had the story in my mind and I wanted to write it so much, that I finished it on one single afternoon. XD I will continue it perhaps, but not early. I have two other Orphen- fanfiction that aren't finished, so. There are some bigger paragraphs in my Word-document, but I don't know what happened to them... I want them back... ;_; ^^°  
  
And now. have fun ^^' (I hope there aren't so many mistakes this time; I read it much times to discover as much as I could. ^^"")  
  
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Darkness. All around him. There was no place to hide from it. He looked around and saw nothing. Nothing but darkness. 'Where am I?', he asked himself.  
  
Suddenly he heard footsteps.  
  
He turned around. "Who's there?" As he turned arund, his blue coat swung after him. He looked into the endless darkness, tried to see someone. He heard the nearer coming footsteps, but saw no one. Cold sweat began to run down his forehead.  
  
Was he afraid? No, why should he? He had been in such situations for several times. He was been trained to wipe out fear and similar emotions for long years. He knew how to handle this situations. He was a grown up man and on top of that a quite strong one.  
  
So, why should he?  
  
The steps came nearer.  
  
The young man blinked as a black shadow stood in front of him. He couldn't see his opposite's face so he walked some steps backward. Not only because of the bad visibility, but also because he felt afraid of the one, who appeared as a black shadow only.  
  
"Who... are you...?"  
  
His voice trembeled. He felt a strong dark magic coming from the shadow.  
  
"Why are you afraid?", the shadow asked. It walked to the young man in the coat. "There's no need to be afraid. I don't want to hurt you, trust me..."  
  
Suddenly the environment was lighten up. But not much, only the part of the all devouring darkness, where the two men were standing. Now the two could look each other into their faces.  
  
The man with the long dark hair and the dangerous smile on his face opened his mouth. "I only want to help you to fulfill one of your greatest wishes." He reached his hand out for the other's face.  
  
"Who are you", asked the younger of the two; this time with more hardness in his voice.  
  
"That's not necessary", was the answer. "The only necessary thing now is that you have a wish, which I want to fulfill."  
  
The first man grapped his head, his bright read hair. "What do you mean?", he asked, "there's no wish I coulnd't fulfill by myself."  
  
A smile again. "Don't lie", the man with the black hair said, "I know there's a great wish you can't fulfill alone."  
  
He touched the red haired's face, his cheek; covered some of his freckles, looked deep into his brown eyes.  
  
"I know there is, belive me. I know everything. Everything about you, your past and everything else. I just know..." He looked onto the chain, which hung down the chest. He looked at the pendant, which hung at the chain.  
  
"...Tower of Fang student Hartia..."  
  
His eyes widened. He couldn's believe that this odd figure knew his name! He began to breath more quickly, felt more and more fear. He began to panic, wanted to go away from this person, but couln't. His feet made no move.  
  
"How...?"  
  
His whole body trembled.  
  
"How do you know...?"  
  
Hartia's opposite smiled again. "As I said, I just know... More is not necessary."  
  
He came nearer to Hartia's face. "I know, you were in the same class as Killiranshelo, weren't you?"  
  
Hartia said nothing. He wondered what the mysterious stranger wanted from him, how he knew his name, who he was, everything. But he was too afraid to ask. He was also too afraid to walk away.  
  
The unknown man smiled. "I know you were. But even if you two studied under the same teacher, you were much weaker than he. Right?" He continued staring into Hartia's eyes.  
  
Hartia nodded. "Yes", he said. His eyes seemed to look at nothing. Nothing but darkness. "But that's allright. He was everytime stronger than me, but that's fate... I'll never excel him. He's Killiranshelo... The world-famous Killranshelo Finrandi... Even now, he's stronger than me, although they all say he became weaker... But that's allright..."  
  
"Don't lie...", the man said again. He came nearer and nearer, their faces almost touched each other. Now he seemed to look into Hartia's soul. Hartia didn't move. He was caught by his fear.  
  
"I know, you want to be as strong as Killiranshelo, or Orphen, as they all call him now. Right?"  
  
Hartia didn't know why he did it, but he nodded.  
  
The man went some steps away from him, released him from his touch. "I knew it...", he said. He snapped his fingers and in the next moment, he held a thin sword in his hand. It looked like an old japanese one.  
  
"And I can help you..."  
  
He put the sword out of its sheath.  
  
"Just trust me..."  
  
Hartia trembled. What did the mysterious man want? Did he want to kill him? Was this his way of help?  
  
Some alarm bells rang in Hartia's head. Stop! Don't trust him! You feel his dark magical energy, so why do you trust him? Go away; don't stay here any longer! He's evil, you can see that! Go away; go!!  
  
But before Hartia could do a move, the stranger took his sword and and suddenly hit him.  
  
Hartia screamed and fell on the ground. He was only hit at the back of his hand, but the wound was bleeding heavily.  
  
He growled. "Is this your way of helping?"  
  
The man didn't answer. He only stood there and watched Hartia's next moves.  
  
As Hartia realized that he wouldn't get an answer, he held his other hand over the one that was injured and wanted to heal it.  
  
"Wait", the man said suddenly, "There's no need to waste your magic..."  
  
Hartia looked. He didn't understand what the man meant, but for any reason, he stopped the healing move and watched astonishedly as the wound closed itself all alone.  
  
But the blood continued running out of it.  
  
Hartia looked suspicious. He wanted to know what was going on. "What the hell is...-"  
  
He was stopped as the stranger pulled him back on his feet. "This is the only way to fulfill your wish", he said. He touched Hartia's bleeding hand. "Everything will be as you everytime wanted. You'll be at least as strong as Killiranshelo." He came nearer to Hartia's face again. "Will you do what I want?"  
  
He put his hand over Hartia's eyes and closed them in this way. "This is the only way to fulfill your wish...", he said again.  
  
Hartia stood there, made no move. "The only way to fulfill my wish...", he repeated.  
  
The man with the black long hair took his hand away from Hartia's face and smiled.  
  
"So...", he said, "Will you?"  
  
As Hartia opened his eyes, the complete shine in them was disappeared. He staired into the darkness behind his opposite, emotionless.  
  
He opened his mouth, answered the question.  
  
"Yes, master..." 


	2. Chapter one ::: Incredible truth

Weheeee, I finally made it!! I created the first chapter, although I never wanted to continue the whole thing. But then my readers (Not only here ^^) came and wanted more and so... After a long time, I wrote this today.  
  
It's shorter than the prologue and I think not good as is, but I don't mind ^.^ (I have to thing hard about a conclusion for the whole story... oO")  
  
Erm... please note: I'm writing based on the things we learn in the manga. (It's the only 'Orphen-Medium' in German... ;__; ) The manga only goes up to volume six and ends there, although the story hasn't end yet (I think it's like up to vol. six of the novels; these two media are very close to each other), so I'm writing based on this point. This could cause slightly A/U and/or OoCness.  
  
But, anyway... enjoy! ^_^  
  
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Feet walked over a ground, slightly covered with a thin film of water. Every step could be heard, every single move caused a soft noise.  
  
When the young man came to a standstill, the red headband and the leatherjacket swung after him.  
  
The brown haired figure opened his mouth.  
  
"So... what do you want...?"  
  
The vibrations in the water caused by the footsteps wore off.  
  
"Why did you tell me to come here?"  
  
He looked around, investigated the dark and lonesome place with his eyes.  
  
"Azalea..."  
  
A smile.  
  
"I'm glad, you're asking", the woman with the chin-long brown hair said, "Killiranshelo."  
  
She walked some steps over to her little brother.  
  
Orphen looked at Azalea like he wanted to say 'Don't call me like that again', but he didn't said so.  
  
Azalea continued.  
  
She graped into the pocket of her almost completely black jacket and pulled out some photos.  
  
"Have you heard of the two dead sorcerors the tower found last week?"  
  
Orphen shook his head. "No, and to be honest, that doesn't interest me. If it would have been famous ones, I would have heard."  
  
"Oh, really?"  
  
Orphen looked up. What did Azalea mean with this?   
  
Azalea sighed, then continued.  
  
"Well, yesterday they found a third victim."  
  
Her hands played around with the photos, not shure wether to give them to Orphen or not.  
  
"And?" Orphen seemed impatient.  
  
"Like the other two, the third one was killed by magic, but by a special one. Examinations have shown that there were no internal injuries, or at least at the first two victims. Rumours say, that the tower isn't going to examin the third too, because it seemes to be the same murder. Rather they're going to bury him tomorrow."  
  
Orphen sighed. "And what does this all have to do with me? I haven't got the time for their internal things at the tower, you know."  
  
Azalea looked at him, surprised. "Do you really think so?"  
  
Her little brother nodded. "I have nothing to do with the tower since that day five years ago; you should know that."  
  
"But perhaps..." Finally, Azalea handed the photos over to Orphen. "... this third victim will change your mind..."  
  
Orphen looked at the four photos Azalea had given him. On this picures, the condition of the corpse was documented in four different angles.  
  
Orphen looked at the pictures silently. It took some time until he realized who this victim was.  
  
Only now, as he looked at the last picture, which showed the victim's face, he got who it was.  
  
His eyes widened in shock as he looked at the red hair and the freckles in the victim's face.  
  
"No", he whispered, "That can't be..."  
  
Azalea closed her eyes. "Unfortunately it's true. He is the one, who was killed by an unknown sorceror."  
  
Orphen couldn't beliefe what, or better, who he saw.  
  
"...Hartia..."  
  
Azalea closed her eyes. "The third victim in one week... I think the elders are not very happy about that."  
  
She waited some seconds, opened her eyes again as she didn't get a response to her comment and saw that Orphen was still looking at the pictures and he was something between deeply sad and very angry.  
  
"Who... did this...?", he asked.  
  
His sister sighed. "They don't know", she said, "The killer never left any trailes. Some suppose that it was you, who did this."  
  
Orphen hissed. "How idiotic. They suspect me to do -this-?" He held one of the photos up, the one, that was showing Hartia's face.  
  
The face on the picture was filled with fear, the young sorceror really seemed to had a horrible death. But there was no blood, no injuries. Only a scar on his left hand...  
  
Azalea shrugged her shoulders. "It's no wonder since they think, you killed some of the elders. Now they suspect you to kill some of the tower's students, too."  
  
Orphen was on bad terms with this topic. "That was your fault, in the end."  
  
Azalea giggled. "Well, you're right, Killiranshelo. But the others don't know."  
  
After one, two silent minutes, Orphen began to speak again. "So", he said, "When exactly is the funeral?"  
  
"Tomorrow morning, around eleven. That's approximately the time when they found him in the woods yesterday."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Perhaps they'll get angry if you appear there, but perhaps they will throw the suspicion away, if you're making a speech."  
  
Orphen kept on being silent. It remindet him so much of the things happened five years ago, of Azalea's funeral.  
  
He wasn't shure wether to go to the tower the next day or not.  
  
"After all, he was still your friend, wasn't he?"  
  
Orphen said nothig, only sighed and then turned his back to Azalea.  
  
Azalea watched at her little brother, the one, who was onced so small, cute and fragile, and now so grown up, proud and mature...  
  
...Or not...?  
  
The young man Azalea was thinking about walked off. Again his feet caused vibrations in the water, that reflectet the dark environment of the the nightly forest. Again his steps were heard quite good. And this was the only thing that was heard, everything else was completely silent.  
  
And as he disappered in the darkness, the only thing left were the photos.  
  
For a moment, Azalea asked herself wether to take the pictures with her or not. She decided to leave them there and disappered, too.  
  
And so, the four photos lay on the ground, in the thin film of water. Only one could be seen completely, the others were lying under the one or with the picture side on the ground.  
  
And the visible one showed Hartia's fearful expression...  
  
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Ok, this was the first chapter! ^-^ More to come, but I don't know when... ^^; 


	3. Chapter two ::: Home again

Oh my. I haven't updated for a while now. I'm sorry for that ^^; I've already written one and a half chapter more, but only released it in two communities and completely forgot about the version here. *falls down on the knees* I'm soooooo sorry!! ^^"" Umh. anyway. enjoy. it's not as good as the last two ones, but.  
  
*** A teacup clattered as it was put down onto the saucer.  
  
"Hey, Orphen!" A blonde girl turned around on her chair as the black sorceror opened the door and got in.  
  
The three, Cleo, Majic and Orphen, were in an inn in a small town in the north of the continent. Orphen was searching for the Sword of Balt Anders, which had disappeared again after Volkan had stolen and lost it.  
  
"Where have you been?", Cleo asked. Orphen walked through the room past the table Cleo and Majic were sitting at, straight ahead to the wooden stairs which led the guests of the inn up to their sleeping rooms. "That's none of your business.", Orphen said a bit teased.  
  
On half of the stairs, he stopped.  
  
"By the way, I'll be out tomorrow morning. You two will wait here until I'm back. Understand?"  
  
Majic nodded, but Cleo didn't agree to Orphen's plans. "Hey, you can't do that! I want to come with you, so where will you be then? Come on, tell me!"  
  
But Orphen was already gone.  
  
'What's on with him?', Cleo asked herself, 'He looked so. sad.'  
  
The next morning, only a few minutes before eleven o' clock, the time when the funeral should start, on the graveyard of the Tower of Fang.  
  
Slowly a crowd of students and teachers came together around the excavated grave for Hartia. There were much pupils there, talking and murmuring, discussing about the cause of Hartia's death.  
  
Suddenly, some of them stepped aside to build an open strip for the person who was coming there.  
  
Whisper ran through the crowd.  
  
"Killiranshelo."  
  
"He has changed much, hasn't he?"  
  
"He's back?"  
  
But then, someone shouted through the crowd.  
  
"Murder!!"  
  
Orphen did not look up. He walked past the crowd of irritated and whispering students straight to the place Hartia should be burried in. He sighed. He hadn't been often in this place in the past. And the last time it was at Azalea's funeral.  
  
Not saying anything, Orphen looked around and found a grave whose tombstone attract his attention. He read the letters on it from a distance.  
  
'.Komikron.'  
  
Was he dead? It seemed so...  
  
"Killiranshelo!" Orphen looked around. He knew this voice, but didn't know where it came from.  
  
After some seconds, Leticia appeared in the still murmuring crowd.  
  
"Oh, you're here, Killiranshelo!" Leticia tried to smile, but the situation was too serious to be happy.  
  
"Tish." The brown haired woman looked at the place where Hartia's tombstone already stood. She tried to say something, to break the silence between her and Orphen.  
  
"Well, it was. terrible to find him there. lying on the ground. not moving. dead." She looked onto the ground; she couldn't stand looking into her brother's eyes, not now, not in this situation.  
  
Orphen sighed. "Did you find him?"  
  
Leticia closed her eyes and nodded haltingly. "I was sent out to look for the sword of Balt Anders with some others. Then we found him two days ago in the woods. One of us saw straightaway, that it had to the same murder like in the last two cases."  
  
Orphen was silent until Leticia opened her mouth again.  
  
"The signs were so glaring."  
  
Orphen swallowed, looked around. He and Leticia were surrounded by curious pupils which wanted to know if the rumours were true and Orphen really killed Hartia.  
  
The brown-haired sorceror said nothig, only bit his teeth together.  
  
"Killiranshelo?"  
  
A hand was placed on his shoulder. Orphen turned around and finally looked into Forte's face.  
  
"Killiranshelo."  
  
Orphen was not very happy to see him.  
  
". would you please make a speech for him? It's your duty, you know. I hope, you know."  
  
Orphen was not shure. He was here. That was enough, wasn't it? But as Orphen looked into the waiting faces of the others, he knew that it wasn't.  
  
He hated to decide this. If he would go, he would be Killiranshelo again, like at the time when he stood there, on the graveyard, at Azalea's funeral. And he didn't want to feel similar things like then, he just didn't want it. But if he wouldn't go, the suspicion that he was the murder, would grow. It was not true that he had killed Hartia and the two others, and Orphen wanted to prove it.  
  
But making a speech was too much.  
  
"Do it."  
  
Orphen looked around. Where did this voice come from? Leticia was thoughtful, too. She knew this voice. But whose was it?  
  
Finally, Orphen found someone in dark brown robes at the edge of the crowd around him. But he couldn't see the other's face, because this figure looked down and a hood was over it's head. Everybody was staring at the unknown, but this mysterious person did nothing.  
  
But then, from the one to the next second, the figure disappeared, teleportet away.  
  
Orphen nodded. "Ok. I'll do it."  
  
As he walked off with Forte, Leticia was still loking at the place, where the person in the cloak had been standing some seconds before, smiling. 'Ha, I know why this voice remembered me of someone', she thought, 'Am I right.  
  
...Azalea...?'  
  
***  
  
Pfew. one of the most boring chapters of all. but in the next, there will be a small surprise (I hope) ^^ 


End file.
